A drunken driver who fatally mowed down four people at a Manhattan July 4 celebration would have kept driving if not for the bodies jammed underneath his car, prosecutors said Monday.

A boozed-up Daniel Christopher Hyden , 44, was kicked out of a local watering hole shortly before he got behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 and crashed through a fence at a Lower East Side park, plowing into a party there, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bodganos said in a chilling opening statement at the suspect’s non-jury trial.

“When he hits 11 people, he’s still revving the engine,” Bodganos said. “The only reason the car stops, horrifically, is because it’s on human beings. 7

7

“Human beings are preventing the tires from touching the ground.”

Hyden plowed into the crowd going 52 mph,

See Full Page